Chōmei (重明, Chōmei), more commonly known as the Seven-Tails (七尾, Nanabi), is a tailed beast sealed within Fū from Takigakure. It has been captured, extracted, and sealed by Akatsuki. In the anime, Chōmei is indicated to have been one of the two tailed beasts that Akatsuki captured before the start of Part II. It was later resealed into a reincarnated Fū during the Fourth Shinobi World War.[3]

Contents

Background

The young tailed beasts with the Sage of the Six Paths.

Chōmei first came into being in the waning days of the Sage of the Six Paths, who used his Creation of All Things ability to separate the Ten-Tails' chakra from its body and divide it into nine separate constructs that would come to be known as tailed beasts in order to ensure that it would never resurface after his death.[4][5] Some time after being created, the Sage sat down with all the young tailed beasts and told them that they would always be together, even when separated, and that one day they would become one entity again with different names and forms than they did. Then, when the time came, they would know what true power is.[6] Chōmei eventually fell into the possession of Takigakure and was sealed into Fū, but was captured and extracted by Akatsuki.

Personality

Chōmei seems to have a happy, go-lucky personality — which it seemingly shares with its jinchūriki as shown when it introduced itself to Naruto, referring to itself as "Lucky Seven Chōmei" (ラッキーセブン重明, Rakkī sebun Chōmei) which might be an allusion to the fact that it has seven tails and the number seven having long been seen as a lucky as well as happy number.

Appearance

Chōmei resembles a blue, armoured kabutomushi, with six of its seven tails resembling green insect wings, along with the seventh tail, all growing from the end of its abdomen. The stem of the tail is green but the wings are orange. Its eyes seem to be covered by a helmet-like skull, from inside of which, an orange glow can be seen. It also has spike protrusions on its shoulders and a row of slits on each shoulder, and six legs — three on each side. The legs are also covered by the blue armour, however the last segment on each leg is not covered and therefore green. During the last remaining days of the Sage of the Six Paths, Chōmei was just in its larval stage of development but still had its tails.[6]

Preparing to attack the shinobi, Seven-Tails along with the other four beasts create Tailed Beast Balls. These attacks however, are deflected by Naruto and they are rebuffed by a now fully-transformed Naruto. After being grabbed mid-flight by Kurama, and sent plummeting to the ground and the other failed attacks by the other beasts, they prepare a collaborative Tailed Beast Ball which is met by one from Naruto and Kurama.

As Naruto enters a deeper plane of the tailed beasts' consciousness, Chōmei introduces itself to the young man. Later as the beast is freed from the chakra receiver it affirms Kurama's belief that Naruto was the person the Sage of the Six Paths had spoken about so long ago before being resealed into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.

Trivia

The kabutomushi (カブトムシ, rhinoceros beetle) is among the largest of beetles found in the world. They are also among the strongest animals on the planet in relation to their own size. Its penchant for fighting other males of the species has made them a popular gambling subject in Asia. Beetles are characterised by a hard exoskeleton and fore-wings, which creates a flexible armoured defence. The fore-wings are not used for flight, but tend to cover the hind part of the body and protect the second pair of wings that are used for that purpose. It is also frequently depicted in popular media as a common cartoon character for various uses.